USP Canaan: Visiting, Mail, Programs and 2026 Inspection

By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

USP Canaan at a glance

USP Canaan is a high-security federal penitentiary for men in Waymart, Pennsylvania. It held 1,313 men as of September 2026: 1,222 behind the wall and 91 at the minimum-security satellite camp beside it. It sits in Wayne County, twenty-odd miles northeast of Scranton, and is the Northeast Region’s only standalone penitentiary.

Official name	United States Penitentiary, Canaan
BOP code	CAA
Security level	High; men
Population	1,313 (as of September 2026): 1,222 at the penitentiary, 91 at the camp
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; red and blue sides alternate weekends · see the visiting rotation
Inmate mail	Penitentiary: Inmate Name & Register Number · USP Canaan · U.S. Penitentiary · P.O. Box 300 · Waymart, PA 18472 Camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · USP Canaan Camp · Satellite Prison Camp · P.O. Box 200 · Waymart, PA 18472
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	570-488-8000 · Fax 570-488-8130
Street address	3057 Eric J. Williams Memorial Drive, Waymart, PA 18472 · Wayne County
Judicial district	Middle District of Pennsylvania
BOP region	Northeast
Housing	12 general population units and one Special Housing Unit at the penitentiary; one open-plan building at the camp
Special Housing Unit	Yes · capacity 238
Medical care level	2 of 4
Mental health care level	2 of 4
RDAP	Yes
UNICOR	No
Camp	Minimum-security satellite camp

Canaan belongs to no complex, shares no warden, and answers for itself. It is one of the federal prisons in Pennsylvania and falls under the Bureau’s Northeast Region. In June 2025 the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General made an unannounced four-day inspection here. The report it published on May 21, 2026, is the most recent independent account of conditions inside any federal prison in the United States.

Canaan is still a penitentiary. Pennsylvania’s other USP is not.

USP Canaan is still a high-security penitentiary; the Pennsylvania penitentiary the Bureau renamed in 2024 was USP Lewisburg. Confusing the two sends mail to the wrong building and lawyers to the wrong warden. On April 4, 2024, the Bureau renamed seven facilities to match missions and security levels that had already changed. Six of them were penitentiaries becoming correctional institutions, and one of the six was USP Lewisburg, eighty miles southwest of here in the same state and the same Bureau region. Lewisburg is now FCI Lewisburg, a medium. Canaan was not on that list, is not on the list of renamed facilities that the Bureau’s website carries, and appears in the live institution roster as it always has: USP Canaan, type USP, security level High. A source that calls Canaan downgraded or renamed has confused the two.

Pennsylvania holds nine federal institutions. Only two of them are high security, and they work differently from each other.

Institution	Type and security	What to know
USP Canaan (this page)	Penitentiary, high, with a camp	Standalone. Its own warden, its own supplements, its own inspection record
USP Allenwood	Penitentiary, high	Part of FCC Allenwood, alongside FCI Allenwood Low and FCI Allenwood Medium. Complex-level records cover all three
FCI Lewisburg	Correctional institution, medium, with a camp	Called USP Lewisburg until April 4, 2024
FCI McKean, FCI Schuylkill	Medium, each with a camp	—
FCI Loretto	Low	—
FDC Philadelphia	Detention center, administrative	Mostly pretrial and pre-designation

One more local confusion: the postal address is Waymart, the township is Canaan, and the street is Eric J. Williams Memorial Drive, named for the correctional officer killed inside this prison in February 2013. The visitor handout attached to the current visiting supplement prints the ZIP as 18471; the Bureau’s roster and both of its inmate mail records give 18472. Use 18472.

What is the security level at USP Canaan?

USP Canaan is high security at the penitentiary and minimum security at the camp. Fifteen of the Bureau’s 118 institutions are high security and every one is a penitentiary, so a designation here puts a man in the smallest and most restrictive tier of the ordinary federal system.

What a penitentiary is, and what the designation changes day to day

It is the top of the Bureau’s ordinary custody ladder, above medium and two rungs above a low. At Canaan that means double-occupancy cells with bunk beds, a sink and a toilet, showers in the unit’s common area, and — under normal operations — cell doors that stay open within the unit, with movement anywhere else escorted and scheduled. The institution is physically large: the Inspector General measured about a quarter of a mile between Health Services and the most distant housing unit.

The camp is a different sentence at the same address: a single building with open-plan living space, 96 beds, and what inspectors called much more freedom of movement with minimal supervision. Camp men work horticulture and dog training; penitentiary men do not.

The arithmetic that sends a man here

Designation is scored, not chosen, at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, under the Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, and the point total decides the building. Our guide to how designation works covers the scoring.

Points	Institution level	Where that lands at Canaan
0–11	Minimum	The satellite camp
12–15	Low	Not here
16–23	Medium	Not here
24 and above	High	The penitentiary

The Public Safety Factors that override the score

A Public Safety Factor is a fact about a case that overrides the score, and three of them set a floor at high security however low a man scores. Validated membership in a disruptive group is one; validation is an intelligence judgment made after arrival, so it can be tested. More than thirty years left to serve, life sentences included, is another. A guilty finding on a serious institutional violence code during simultaneous disturbances is the third, and it can turn a single incident at a medium into years in a penitentiary. Factors are recorded on form BP-337 at designation and added or removed afterward on form BP-338; both sit in the central file, and anyone arguing about where a man is held should read them first.

Getting out of a penitentiary and into something lower

There are two routes out. The first is a Management Variable, the Bureau’s written override of its own score when placement does not match the scored level; it needs the approval of the Designation and Sentence Computation Center administrator. The Release Residence variable carries the First Step Act’s distance rule and can reach men within 36 months of release. Our guide to federal prison transfers sets out both.

The second route is specific to Canaan. In its May 2026 response to the Inspector General, the Bureau told the OIG it had asked for “assistance in movement of inmates with new facility designations, as well as temporarily redesignating inmates with unverified protective custody cases that will result in transfers after a period of time.” Transfers out of Canaan are, on the Bureau’s own account, being used as a pressure valve for a full Special Housing Unit. That is the context in which a transfer request here is read.

Why is USP Canaan so often on modified operations?

USP Canaan is so often on modified operations because its Special Housing Unit is full, and when it is full the men who would be held there stay locked in ordinary housing units, along with everyone else in those units. Working from a day-by-day record built from the institution’s own emails, the Inspector General found that Canaan limited movement in general population housing units on 79 of the 120 days between February and May 2025: two-thirds of a four-month window with some or all men confined to their cells for all or most of the day.

It is the most important operational fact about this prison: a visit, a phone call, a class or a medical appointment can be canceled without notice.

Lockdown and modified operations are not the same thing

The institution runs three statuses, and the difference decides what reaches the man you are trying to contact. The Bureau’s general rules are on our lockdowns and modified operations page.

Status	Out of cells?	Meals	Medication	Programs and appointments	Email and phone
Normal	Yes	Dining hall	Collected at the pharmacy	Yes	Yes
Modified, less restrictive	1–3 hours a day	Distributed in the unit	Collected at the pharmacy	In theory yes; in practice limited by the difficulty of escorting men in and out	Yes
Modified, more restrictive	No, except three showers a week	Distributed in the unit	Distributed in the unit	No	No
Lockdown	No, except three showers a week	Distributed in the unit	Distributed in the unit	No	No

Under more restrictive modified operations and under lockdown, telephones and TRULINCS are off, and families are not notified. If messages and calls stop for days, the likeliest explanation is the unit’s status, not anything the man did.

The Special Housing Unit is the reason, and it has been for a decade

Canaan’s Special Housing Unit holds 238 — large by Bureau standards, and consistently close to full. Three independent inspections eleven years apart found the same thing: in August 2014 the DC Corrections Information Council counted 215 men in a SHU designed for 236, 100 of them in protective custody; in August 2022 it counted 216; in June 2025 the Inspector General watched a weekly multidisciplinary SHU meeting at which an attendee read out a list of more than 200 men, and recorded 43 percent of the SHU there for protection.

Two things keep it full. The first is discipline. Men suspected of a serious infraction wait in the SHU for an investigation and a hearing before a Disciplinary Hearing Officer, and Canaan officials told the OIG that the institution’s single DHO could not keep up, so men waited longer than a timely hearing would have required. Three of the Bureau’s four other standalone penitentiaries, comparable in size, are authorized two DHO positions. A second was authorized by April 2026 and onboarded that May.

The second is protective custody. From August 2024 to January 2025 Canaan had permission from Central Office to convert a general population unit into a second SHU, and the warden said the rest of the institution could then be run normally. In early 2025 the Correctional Programs Division withdrew that permission and the unit reverted in February 2025 — the month the OIG’s 79-of-120-days count begins. The Bureau’s Assistant Director for Correctional Programs told the OIG that Canaan’s SHU is relatively larger than most and that he did not believe the institution had a significant number of men requesting protective custody. The OIG’s own on-site count was 43 percent. Inspectors described the institution and Central Office as “at an impasse.”

What the restrictions cost

Medical care, mostly. From the Bureau’s own electronic medical records, the OIG found that in the six months from January to June 2025 limits on movement contributed to 1,271 missed medical appointments — 83 percent of the 1,529 missed in that period. Medication slipped too: men normally collect it between 6 and 8 a.m., and on two of the three modified-operations days during the inspection staff were still distributing after 11 a.m. For insulin, that matters.

Programming is the other casualty. Classes run outside the units, so under more restrictive modified operations they do not happen, and under the less restrictive status staff told the OIG it is hard to get individual men released and escorted. For anyone counting First Step Act time credits, that is the difference between a program being approved at this institution and one being delivered to a particular man in a particular month.

The Bureau says this has improved. In its May 2026 response it reported a 60-day policy waiver granted on March 25, 2026, to operate an external SHU, and general population units back on normal operations from March 27, 2026, with modified operations since then “occasionally due to exhausting all additional SHU bedspace.” That is a temporary waiver resting on clearing a disciplinary backlog. Ask the unit team what the unit’s status has been this month.

Who are the notable inmates at USP Canaan?

The Bureau’s inmate records place three widely reported men at USP Canaan — Charles Carneglia, Yasith Chhun and Anthony Ellison — far fewer than the lists circulating online.

Name and register number	Status	Case
Charles Carneglia, 08773-016	Held here. Age 80; sentence recorded as life	Gambino crime family soldier convicted in the Eastern District of New York of racketeering including four murders
Yasith Chhun, 31900-112	Held here. Age 70; sentence recorded as life	Leader of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, convicted in 2008 in the Central District of California of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and related offenses
Anthony Ellison, 86282-054	Held here. Age 39; projected release January 12, 2042	Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods member convicted in the Southern District of New York of the 2018 kidnapping and robbery of the rapper known as 6ix9ine

Other men named on published lists of Canaan prisoners are held elsewhere or are no longer in custody, according to their Bureau records:

• Frank James, 83999-053, who shot ten people on a Brooklyn subway train in April 2022, is at USP Florence ADMAX in Colorado, not at Canaan.
• Alexanda Kotey, 11685-509, one of the Islamic State group known as the Beatles, is also at USP Florence ADMAX.
• Steven Crea, 48635-066, the Lucchese underboss, is at FMC Butner in North Carolina.
• Benjamín Arellano Félix, 00678-748, of the Tijuana cartel, is at USP Coleman I in Florida, with a projected release of April 28, 2032.
• Ronell Wilson, 71460-053, convicted of the 2003 murders of two New York City detectives, is at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
• Luke Sommer, 38474-086, the former Army Ranger convicted of bank robbery and of soliciting the murder of a federal prosecutor, is at FCI Fairton in New Jersey, with a projected release of June 9, 2034.
• Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros, 37671-133, recorded by the Bureau under the committed name Matta-Lopez, died in Bureau custody on October 30, 2025, with MCFP Springfield as the last facility on his record (the locator shows “Deceased: 10/30/2025”). Mohammad Shibin, 78207-083, the Somali pirate negotiator, died in Bureau custody on March 17, 2024, with FMC Butner as the last facility on his record (the locator shows “Deceased: 03/17/2024”).
• Paul Manafort, 35207-016, is listed on several sites as a Canaan prisoner. Bureau records show his release on December 28, 2020, and his last recorded facility as the Residential Reentry Management office in Baltimore. Nothing in those records places him at this penitentiary.

Former prisoners whose cases are still cited: Adelphia founder John Rigas, 53983-054, released from Canaan on February 22, 2016, and his son Timothy, 53982-054, released January 14, 2022, from the Philadelphia reentry office; Gregory Abbott, 86702-054, of the 2019 college admissions prosecution, released from Canaan on January 28, 2020; and Abdul Kadir, 64656-053, convicted over the plot to bomb fuel lines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, who died here on June 28, 2018.

The distinction that matters most concerns Allen Archie Hurley, 28652-037, who killed another Canaan prisoner in April 2010: the Bureau records him at USP Florence – High, not at ADX Florence. Those are two prisons on one Colorado campus with two codes, FLP and FLM, and the difference decides the mailing address, the visiting rules and the warden. Jessie Con-ui, 04287-748, who murdered Officer Eric Williams here in February 2013, is at USP Florence ADMAX.

How do I find someone at USP Canaan?

To find someone at USP Canaan, search the Bureau’s free Inmate Locator by the eight-digit register number, or by the committed name, which is the name on the judgment rather than the one the family uses. The locator covers everyone in federal custody since 1982: for someone still held it gives the facility and a projected release date, and for someone released it shows “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, with no facility.

The locator names a facility, not a unit: for anyone held here the screen reads “Located at: Canaan USP.” That leaves the question that matters most open: penitentiary or camp. The two have different post office boxes, different visiting rooms and different rules, and the populations do not mix, so ask. A blank result usually means one of three things: the person is in state custody, he is being held for the U.S. Marshals Service before sentencing, or the judgment spells his name differently. Our guide to how register numbers work takes the number apart digit by digit.

How do I write to someone at USP Canaan?

Mail for someone at USP Canaan goes to one of two post office boxes: P.O. Box 300 for the penitentiary and P.O. Box 200 for the camp. The first line of the address carries the committed name and the register number.

For someone at the penitentiary	For someone at the satellite camp
Inmate Name & Register Number USP Canaan U.S. Penitentiary P.O. Box 300 Waymart, PA 18472	Inmate Name & Register Number USP Canaan Camp Satellite Prison Camp P.O. Box 200 Waymart, PA 18472

The local rules cause most of the rejections. Canaan’s handbook requires every incoming general correspondence envelope to be white; one in any other color, or carrying glitter, stickers, lipstick, fragrance, stains, or writing in crayon or marker rather than pen, pencil or type, may be rejected outright. Add the housing unit to the address line if you know it — the institution asks for it, in the form A1, A2, B1.

The second local rule is one families find hard. Incoming general correspondence at Canaan is photocopied, photographs included, and the copy is what gets delivered; the handbook says so, and DC inspectors in August 2022 recorded men complaining that copies came out crooked and photographs cut off or too dark. Send a photograph knowing he will receive a photocopy of it. The same handbook records that even special and legal mail envelopes may be photocopied before delivery.

Legal mail is opened in the man’s presence, and not read, only when the sender is identified on the envelope and the front is marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate”; otherwise it is handled as ordinary mail. The Bureau’s correspondence rules set out the national system; the privilege question is covered in our guide to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons, and what gets rejected in writing to someone in federal prison. Publications may be accumulated only to three magazines, one newspaper and five books. Never enclose money in a letter.

How do I send money to someone at USP Canaan?

Money for someone at USP Canaan goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Des Moines, Iowa, or through Western Union or MoneyGram, never to Waymart. All three need the committed name and the eight-digit register number on the instrument and on the envelope.

Route	Where it goes	Timing and limits
Postal money order	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	U.S. postal money orders post without a hold; non-postal money orders and non-government checks carry an automatic 15-day hold
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	Two to four hours by the Bureau’s Send Money page and the handbook, ordinarily two by PS 4500.13, if sent 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern; after 9:00 p.m., by 7:00 a.m. next day
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC	Same timing; online transfers capped at $300

Cash and personal checks are not accepted; the national rules are in our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner.

Two warnings before you send a large sum. Commissary spending is capped, so money above the ceiling simply sits in the account. And a man in refusal status under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program — because he has declined to pay restitution, fines or a special assessment — is held by his handbook to $25 a month at the commissary, validated once a month, and barred from pay above the maintenance level. Sorting out a financial plan is usually worth more than the deposit.

What are the visiting hours at USP Canaan?

Visiting at USP Canaan runs Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at both the penitentiary and the camp. Those hours come from institution supplement CAA-5267.09F, Inmate Visiting Regulations, dated December 22, 2025, which rescinded the February 2025 version. Visitors are not processed before 8:00 a.m. or after 2:00 p.m.

Friday visiting has ended. The institution’s April 2022 handbook still lists visiting on “Friday, Saturday, Sundays and all federal holidays”; the December 2025 supplement is the newer rule and controls, and listings that include Fridays are out of date.

The same supplement stops escorts during the morning count. Social visitors are not escorted into the visiting room after 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays; escorts resume as soon as possible after the 10:00 a.m. count clears, so a visitor who arrives at 9:15 waits in the lobby until then. Call 570-488-8000 the day before you travel.

Your unit’s weekend: the visiting rotation

Not every weekend is your weekend. Published with the visiting supplement is a twelve-month visiting calendar for 2026 that assigns each Saturday, each Sunday and each federal holiday to one side of the institution: “RED SIDE units A/B/C” or “BLUE SIDE unit D/E/F.” The sides alternate week by week, so a given housing unit visits on two weekends a month, and a federal holiday belongs to whichever side the calendar names — Martin Luther King Day 2026 to the blue side, Juneteenth to the red side, Christmas to the red side.

The arithmetic closes neatly: eight visiting points a month at two points a visit is four visits, exactly the four days his side is open in a normal month. The same red-and-blue split runs the recreation yards and the weekday movement schedule, so this is not a visiting quirk but how the prison is organized. Ask which side and which weekend before you book travel.

One conflict is printed inside the same document. The body of the supplement charges two points for every visit; the visitor handout attached to it charges two on weekends and one on weekdays, and the 2022 handbook says holidays cost nothing. The current schedule has no weekday social visits, and the documents do not settle which rule now applies to holidays; ask the institution. Legal visits and Prisoner Visitation Service visits cost no points at all.

Who can visit, and how many

• Four visitors at a time. Four, total — the supplement counts approved adults, children and babies alike. Exceptions go through the Unit Manager, and one swap of visitors mid-visit may be allowed at a Lieutenant’s discretion. The April 2022 handbook says five; the December 2025 supplement controls.
• The approved list may hold immediate family, other relatives and no more than ten friends and associates at a time, amended by written request quarterly. Everyone needs a Visitor Information Form (BP-A0629) returned to the Unit Counselor and an NCIC check; former federal prisoners are reviewed by the Warden.
• A child under 16 may come only with a responsible adult who will supervise him closely; anyone 16 or over needs a visitor form of his own and photo identification.
• Attorney, paralegal and investigator visits are arranged through the unit team at least 24 hours ahead, and the supplement states they continue to be scheduled during an institution lockdown. Special visits for people not on the list need two weeks’ notice. A Minister of Record costs no points; other clergy visits are charged.
• Men in the Special Housing Unit get two hours in a non-contact room and are processed only until 1:00 p.m.

Capacity closes the room. Each visiting room holds 90 occupants and the supplement caps the penitentiary’s at 18 men at a time, non-contact rooms excluded; when it fills, visits are terminated in the order they started, on the Institution Duty Officer’s decision.

What visitors can wear and bring

No khaki, tan, light brown or dark green — those read as inmate clothing — and no camouflage or military dress. No shorts of any kind; skirts and dresses must reach the knee, slits included. Also barred: sleeveless or shoulder-baring tops, anything revealing midriff or cleavage, athletic wear including tights, sweat suits and sports jerseys, skin-toned garments, plain white T-shirts, hospital scrubs, torn clothing, hats, scarves, heavy coats, anything hooded, and open-toed, heeled, platform or slipper footwear. Female visitors must wear a bra, and underwire will set off the detector.

Watches are banned on both sides of the table — the supplement bars them from visitors and from the men they visit. Jackets may be worn in within reason but must go on the coat rack; none, children’s included, is allowed at the table.

You may bring up to $30 for the vending machines in a clear plastic bag no larger than eight by ten inches; wallets are not allowed in the visiting room. The 2022 handbook says $35 and permits a wallet — the December 2025 supplement is the current rule. For an infant: three diapers, one clear package of wipes, one change of clothes, two clear bottles or sippy cups with contents, two unopened jars of baby food, a receiving blanket, a plastic spoon and one small clear tote. No games, toys, newspapers, magazines, photographs, make-up, tobacco, cameras or electronic devices. A private room is provided on request for nursing mothers.

Medication stays in a lobby locker unless it is essential to support life, in which case you carry only the dose needed during the visit and the visiting room officer holds it; the front lobby officer calls medical staff first.

Identification, screening and the drug detector

Photo identification is required for everyone 16 and over and must be a valid state or government-issued card; altered, forged or expired documents are refused, as are check-cashing cards. Surgically implanted plates, pins or pacemakers require a doctor’s documentation describing the device and its location, produced before you enter.

Everyone signs the lobby log, completes a Notification to Visitor form, passes a walk-through metal detector and is marked with an invisible-ink stamp checked under black light at the lobby, the control room and the visiting room, and again on the way out. Religious headgear is permitted after it is searched. Once checked in you cannot return to your car; if you do, the visit ends.

The detail to plan around is the ion scanner. The handbook records a drug and explosive detection device at the penitentiary’s front lobby, used on randomly selected visitors, with a graduated suspension for anyone who tests positive: 48 hours for a first occurrence, 30 days for a second, 90 days for a third, 180 days for a fourth. Only the Operations Lieutenant or the Institution Duty Officer may give that notice. These machines pick up traces from banknotes and medication as well as contraband, and the consequence is automatic. Reinstatement to a visiting list can be granted only by the Warden, on a memorandum from the Unit Manager. How these searches are meant to be run is set out in our guide to searches, shakedowns and contraband; the national rules are in the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our guide to federal prison visitation.

One June 2025 inspection finding belongs here: the Inspector General saw a front lobby officer choosing visitors for pat searches by his own judgment rather than the institution’s predetermined random method, which Bureau policy requires so that searches are not discriminatory. The OIG recommended retraining and the Bureau agreed. If you think you were singled out, write down the date, the time and the officer’s name.

Getting there

From Scranton, take Interstate 81 north to U.S. Route 6 and follow it to Waymart; at the traffic light turn right onto State Route 296 and follow it 1.4 miles, entrance on the right. From the New York and Milford direction, take Interstate 84 west to exit 17, then Route 191 north until signs appear for Route 296 north. The handbook gives 135 miles northwest from New York City and 145 miles north from Philadelphia; DC inspectors measured 262 miles from Union Station, four and a half hours by car, and recorded that the prison is not reachable by public transit.

The nearest airport is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International at Avoca; the nearest intercity bus is Martz Trailways in Scranton, 570-342-0166. Visitor parking is in marked red spaces; campers and tractor trailers are barred from the lot, and waiting in a vehicle on institution grounds when you are not visiting is not allowed.

How do phone calls and email work at USP Canaan?

At USP Canaan, calls go out only and email runs through TRULINCS. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, the allowance is 510 minutes a calendar month: 300 are free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and anyone who uses up those 300, eligible or not, may buy the other 210. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls, and the monthly limit does not apply to unmonitored legal calls. The extra 100 minutes in November and December belonged to the 2008 policy and did not survive its rescission. Everything except a properly arranged unmonitored legal call is recorded and may be monitored.

Canaan’s own schedule is unusually specific, and it runs on whether a man works. The April 2022 handbook sets telephones on from 6:30 to 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. for men on the work schedule; day phones run 6:30 to 9:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. Weekends and holidays follow the day-phone schedule. Using a telephone during work hours is a disciplinary matter. Our guide to federal inmate phone calls covers the national rules and the cost.

Email is TRULINCS public messaging, which families reach through CorrLinks; our guide to CorrLinks and TRULINCS explains how it works. At Canaan the same terminals handle the electronic law library, prescription refills, account balances and the bulletin board on which the institution posts changes to local procedures, including mail rules; families outside cannot see it.

Email with a lawyer is not privileged and the Bureau says so. Anything that has to stay privileged goes by marked special mail on paper.

What can people buy at the USP Canaan commissary?

People at USP Canaan can buy food, drinks, hygiene items, typewriter supplies, kosher foods and religious items at the commissary, within the Bureau’s national spending ceiling of $460 a month. The Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, raised the ceiling from $360; the limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. Canaan validates twice a month rather than once. The April 2022 handbook sets $180 per period with revalidation on the 1st and the 15th, the old $360 ceiling split in half, and PS 4500.13 expressly permits weekly or bi-weekly validation. The published documents do not say whether the per-period figure has been raised to match $460. Ask the unit team and check the commissary bulletin board before assuming either number.

Items excluded from the limit include stamps, over-the-counter medications and copy cards. Canaan’s 2022 order form sets the category caps that shape a month: 24 soups, 20 meats, 10 bags of chips, 24 sodas and 12 waters, 15 snacks, 8 candy, 4 dental and 4 skin-care items, 3 soaps and one deodorant. Stamps are capped at $11.00 and legal copy cards at three.

Two entries on that form reflect life here. It still stocks typewriter ribbons at $7.80, correction tape and typing paper — and the legal-access supplement explains why: men must supply their own ribbons and print wheels for the typewriters in the law libraries and the housing units, with the Supervisor of Education issuing them free only to the verified indigent. And it carries a full kosher line alongside kufi caps, a yarmulke and a prayer rug, in an institution where DC inspectors found Islam the most frequently recorded religious preference. Prices are from 2022 and the form says they change without notice. See the federal prison commissary.

The shopping rules are unforgiving: one properly completed and signed list with the identification card at the window, no extras and no substitutes, all sales final, and the man must stay in line — the form warns that failing to be present when his number is called means the order is restocked.

What programs are available at USP Canaan?

USP Canaan offers the Residential Drug Abuse Program, the Challenge Program, drug education and non-residential drug treatment, GED and ESL classes, registered apprenticeships and other First Step Act programs, but no UNICOR factory.

RDAP and the Challenge Program

Both run here, which is unusual. The Residential Drug Abuse Program is a 500-hour residential program scheduled Monday to Friday, and for men convicted of non-violent offenses completion can mean up to a year off the sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e). Canaan appears on the residential drug treatment locations list inside the Bureau’s August 2026 First Step Act guide, which records 57 programs at 50 locations. DC inspectors in 2014 flagged RDAP at a penitentiary as a best practice, noting it is generally offered only at lower security levels.

The Challenge Program is the residential psychology program for high-security men, open on the handbook’s terms to those scoring 24 points or more, with a substance abuse track and a mental health track and three phases. Drug Education, a 12- to 15-hour class, is mandatory for men whose judge recommended treatment, whose offense involved drugs, whose violation involved drugs or alcohol, or whose presentence report documents substance use; the Non-Residential Drug Treatment program runs 18 to 22 weeks and is voluntary.

Approval is not delivery. The DC Corrections Information Council surveyed 49 of the 99 DC Code offenders held here in August 2022 and found that only three said they were in any program at all — one in RDAP, two in Culinary Arts. Four said they had been denied RDAP; two had asked for the Challenge Program and both were refused. The Bureau’s published response was that enrollment is governed by the criteria in its psychology treatment programs policy and that the Council had supplied no individual information for it to check.

Education, vocational training and what closed

GED and English-as-a-second-language classes are mandatory where the law requires, with a 240-hour minimum instructional period. Adult Continuing Education covers typing, public speaking, Spanish, creative writing and mathematics in the evenings and on weekends. Apprenticeships registered with the Department of Labor run in teacher’s aide, electrical, horticulture, HVAC and plumbing; Culinary Arts is a 200-hour course ending in the ServSafe examination. Post-secondary study is by paid correspondence — DC inspectors recorded eighteen men enrolled with a private distance-learning provider in August 2022, against an institutional goal of seventeen GED completions for the year. See prison education and vocational training.

There is no prison industry here anymore. DC inspectors recorded in August 2022 that Canaan “used to have UNICOR; however, it has been closed for several years and the space is now used for recycling meal trays and other products.” The April 2022 handbook still describes factory jobs and a waiting list. The Bureau’s August 2026 programs guide leaves Canaan out of both of its halves: the Federal Prison Industries description page lists the 55 institutions where the corporation operates and Canaan is not one of them, and the programs-by-institution table does not mark it either. The oldest of those records is the only one that says there is a factory.

That same table marks Canaan for the Challenge Program, residential and non-residential drug treatment, Anger Management, Basic Cognitive Skills, Criminal Thinking, Emotional Self-Regulation, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, literacy and ESL, parenting, family programming, Threshold, post-secondary education and all four occupational education tracks. It does not mark Life Connections, the Skills, Stages or Resolve programs, Mental Health Step Down, or either sex offender treatment program. Whether a class is running this quarter, and how long the waitlist is, only the unit team can answer.

Religion, psychology and reentry

Religious Services runs faith group meetings in the chapel and administers the religious diet program. It also handles family emergencies: if a parent, sibling, child or spouse is hospitalized or dies, telephone the chaplain on duty with the man’s name and register number and the hospital or funeral home. Religious items must be approved by the chaplain and bought through the commissary; none may be sent in from home.

Psychology Services sits beside the chapel and takes self-referrals by electronic message or paper request; crisis referrals go through any staff member. In August 2022 the institution had one psychologist, two group rooms capped at twelve men, two suicide-watch rooms, and priority for group places given to men closest to release. The Bureau told the DC Corrections Information Council in January 2023 that unit teams review men for halfway house placement 17 to 19 months before release; the Bureau’s release preparation rules, Program Statement 5325.09, issued in June 2026, now enroll men in release preparation 18 to 24 months before departure.

What is daily life like at USP Canaan?

Daily life at USP Canaan is split in half: the institution runs everything — recreation, movement, meals, visiting — on a red side and a blue side that alternate, which is why two men at the same prison can describe completely different days. This is the weekday shape from the April 2022 handbook.

Time	What happens
6:00 a.m.	General wake-up; one-way movement to outdoor recreation, red side then blue
8:00 / 8:10 a.m.	Work call, programs, call-outs and recreation — red side, then blue side ten minutes later
10:00 / 10:10 a.m.	Recall from recreation and programs
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.	Mainline: red side 10:30–11:25, blue side 11:30–12:30. No other movement
12:45 / 12:50 p.m.	Afternoon work call, programs, libraries, religious services, psychology
3:15 / 3:30 p.m.	Housing unit recall and insulin line
4:00 p.m.	Standing count in cells
4:30 / 4:45 p.m.	Outdoor recreation, blue side then red
5:00 / 5:45 p.m.	Evening mainline, blue side then red
6:50 / 7:00 p.m.	Evening recreation, religious services, library movement
8:10 / 8:30 p.m.	Recall and pill line
9:00 p.m.	Standing count in cells

Work uniform is required Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., including for pill line and sick call. Call-outs for the next day are posted on the unit board after 4:00 p.m., and checking them is the man’s responsibility. Legal work is capped at twelve inches of active material in the cell; the rest goes into a legal bin held by the unit team, accessible by written request about once a week. Recreation is three outdoor yards — football, soccer, and one subdivided into basketball courts — plus an indoor gym, an activity center, art and hobby craft, under the Zimmer Amendment restrictions: no R, X or NC-17 films, no martial arts or weightlifting instruction, no electric instruments.

What do inspectors say about conditions at USP Canaan?

The Justice Department Inspector General’s 2025 inspection found unsafe use of four-point restraints, no on-site physician, movement limited on 79 of 120 days, missed monitoring rounds and unprofessional staff conduct at USP Canaan. It is the most recently inspected institution in the Inspector General’s unannounced inspection program: teams were on site from Monday, June 2, to Thursday, June 5, 2025, and Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, E&I Report 26-055, was published on May 21, 2026. The OIG records in that report that since 2023 it has inspected 14 BOP institutions — seven individual inspections, six in its concurrent food-service round, and an ongoing effort at FCI Berlin — and that Canaan was the thirteenth unannounced inspection completed and “our first full inspection of a standalone USP.”

Fieldwork was in June 2025 and publication in May 2026, delayed, a footnote says, by the lapse in appropriations that began on October 1, 2025. Everything below describes the institution as inspectors found it in June 2025 unless a later date is given. As of June 1, 2025, 414 of the institution’s 442 positions were filled, leaving 28 vacancies.

Restraints

The OIG led with this: it “identified unsafe application of four-point restraints that has contributed to serious inmate injury.” An OIG-contracted physician watched a man restrained so tightly that the chain pulled his wrist cuffs downward, and advised officers to loosen them; when one did, the man said the pain stopped. Staff said they had seen hands swell and turn “purple” and “blue,” and a Health Services supervisor said officers often dismissed the concerns of nurses and paramedics doing welfare checks because no doctor was on site to back them.

Inspectors reviewed all 66 instances of physical restraint in the year to June 2025. One man, held in a combination of four-point and ambulatory restraints for 106 hours over several days in May and June 2025, developed wounds on his wrists and ankles and rhabdomyolysis, spent nine days in the hospital, and months later still had severely limited use of one arm with the muscle atrophying. Another, restrained 55 hours, had two medical emergencies and no documented water intake for over 47 hours. In a third case the institution told the OIG it held no restraint records at all.

Healthcare

Canaan had no on-site full-time physician from November 2022 through the inspection — both physician posts vacant, no Clinical Director, the Northeast Regional Medical Director covering remotely while acting as Clinical Director elsewhere. Intake examinations for men with chronic conditions, due within 14 days of arrival, were 61 overdue in January 2025 and 94 overdue by January 2026. There was no full-time phlebotomist from 2020 until March 2025, leaving 177 laboratory orders more than 30 days past due; of 48 diabetic men whose records the OIG reviewed, only 31 had A1C tests within the required intervals. A man who arrived in February 2025 was not identified as HIV positive until June.

Outside specialist care was slower still. Of 891 completed outside appointments between June 2024 and June 2025, 252 happened more than three months after referral. Of 368 referrals still unscheduled on July 31, 2025, 316 had missed the 14-day window the Bureau’s contract sets, and 102 were already past the date the referring clinician had marked medically necessary — unscheduled, on average, for 93 days. One man’s potentially cancerous kidney mass, found in August 2024, went unassessed for over a year; the OIG notified the Bureau on September 11, 2025, and he saw a urologist that November.

Inspectors also found sharp dental instruments and a nearly full bottle of chloroform in unlocked cabinets beside a dental room where a man sat unattended; naloxone at the camp clinic that had expired in June 2024, a year earlier; and all four medical transport vehicles out of service, so staff answering an emergency would carry a man on a stretcher across a quarter-mile campus. Three were repaired by September 2025.

Monitoring, suicide risk, and a death in July 2025

From January to May 2025 there were 19 suicide attempts at Canaan — 12 in the SHU, 5 in general population, 2 by men already on watch. Against that, the institution was not following the March 2024 update to Bureau policy on single-celling in the SHU: the forms recording the Captain’s and Chief Psychologist’s recommendations and the Warden’s approval came weeks late, could not be produced at all for every one of the twelve men single-celled on June 4, 2025, and were signed by the Warden without a date. At the weekly SHU meeting inspectors attended, single-cell placements were never discussed, and the Warden acknowledged the institution had not been complying.

Camera footage showed officers completing no rounds at all in five general population units across a 24-hour period, and none in a sixth across 48 hours. In July 2025, a month after the inspection, a newly committed man single-celled in a general population unit died by suicide within four days of arriving. The Bureau’s own after-action report identified deficiencies in conducting frequent irregular rounds as a contributing factor; the OIG’s review of the footage found three hours between the last sighting of him alive and the moment staff found him. His mental health medication had been discontinued on arrival without clinical justification, and movement in his unit had been limited in the days before he died.

Staff conduct and contraband

In employee-only areas inspectors recorded a whiteboard in a housing unit officers’ office that appeared to label men as “s—t bags,” sexually explicit language over the institution’s official radio channel, and, in the control tower, a sticker reading Molon Labe, a mural carrying the “1%er” outlaw motorcycle logo beside Bureau emergency response team logos, and two lightning bolts on a light switch resembling the Nazi SS insignia. The Warden and Captain said they had not known, agreed the conduct was unprofessional, and by February 2026 reported the stickers removed and the areas repainted.

Staff recovered 166 weapons in the seven months from December 2024 to June 2025, and three more sharpened items during the inspection week. Sports gambling flyers were posted openly in five housing units — on pillars under televisions, on an officers’ control panel, one laminated, several apparently printed from the same file — with one partly covering a poster telling men how to report sexual abuse. The OIG wrote that this “indicate[s] potential employee knowledge and acceptance of inmate gambling.” Tattoo needles were found in two cells; asked later what had been done, the institution said it had no documentation.

The Bureau concurred with all nine recommendations, which the OIG marked resolved with responses due by August 20, 2026, and said it would send its new National Resource Team, led by Deputy Director Joshua J. Smith, to Canaan within weeks of publication.

The District of Columbia inspections, 2014 and 2022

Canaan is one of very few federal prisons with two independent inspection streams, because DC Code offenders serve federal sentences and the District’s Corrections Information Council inspects where they are held. The Council’s numbers count small, self-selected volunteer samples of DC men, not the prison.

The Council visited on August 4, 2014, and reported in January 2016, recording 179 DC men — 12 percent of a population of 1,486 against a rated capacity of 1,599 — and interviewing 29 of them, 26 of whom reported disrespectful staff or rising tension. It praised RDAP and the Challenge Program at a penitentiary as a best practice.

It returned on August 16 and 17, 2022, and reported on January 5, 2023, surveying 49 of the 99 DC men then held. Of those 49: 39 had no access to vocational training; 25 rated medical care low against 6 who rated it high; 30 said sick call went unanswered beyond 48 hours; 20 had not seen a dentist, one not in five years; 23 had no clean sheets or towels and 15 no clean clothes, laundry coming back “brown”; 24 felt extremely unsafe; 37 would not report violence to staff; and 20 reported racist or discriminatory remarks from staff. The institution reported 32 staff vacancies including the medical officer, clinical director, chaplain and fifteen senior officers, a vacant Warden’s post filled by an acting Warden on temporary assignment, seven lockdowns and three deaths — one natural, one suicide, one homicide — in the previous twelve months, and 78 uses of force and 46 uses of restraints. The Bureau’s written responses are published alongside each finding.

Two findings recur across the reports. The Clinical Director post was already listed vacant when DC inspectors came in August 2022, and the Inspector General found it still unfilled in June 2025. Staff conduct toward the men held here drew findings from both bodies, four years apart.

The 2024 PREA audit, and three capacity figures

Canaan was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on site from January 23 to 25, 2024, by an independent auditor, Grace A. Franks, whose final report is dated March 9, 2024. It passed: two standards exceeded — hiring and promotion decisions, and employee training — 39 met, none unmet. In the twelve months before the audit the institution recorded 16 allegations of sexual abuse, 12 inmate-on-inmate and 4 staff-on-inmate, and none of sexual harassment. None was referred for criminal investigation, and at the time of the report none was substantiated: ten unsubstantiated, one unfounded, five still open. The auditor could not review the four staff-on-inmate files, which were incomplete and with the Office of Internal Affairs, and worked from a summary instead.

The audit is one of three sources for capacity, and the three figures differ. The PREA report gives a designed capacity of 1,088 and a population of 1,281 — and answers “No” to whether the facility had been over capacity in the previous twelve months. The Inspector General, in June 2025, gives a physical capacity of 1,536 at the penitentiary and 96 at the camp, holding 1,357 and 86 men. The DC Corrections Information Council, in 2014, gives a rated capacity of 1,599. They are not measuring the same thing, and none of them should be quoted as the capacity of this prison.

USP Canaan in the news

Recent news about USP Canaan centers on an assault prosecution, a contractor’s natural-gas overbilling judgment and two deaths in custody; older items concern a 2025 suicide, a 2023 sentencing appeal, attacks on officers in 2013 and 2015, and a 2011 salmonella outbreak.

• May 2026 — Frederico Brown, a Canaan prisoner, was charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury over conduct on January 9, 2026, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on May 1, 2026.
• April 2026 — contractor Jack Kidd and Arapaho Communications LP consented to a $3.5 million judgment, admitting they overbilled the Bureau $4,213,061 for natural gas sold to USP Canaan between October 2016 and November 2017. Kidd had earlier pleaded guilty to wire fraud and paid $11,397,374 in restitution.
• January 2026 — Sakwon Artavas Bowser, 29, at Canaan since August 2025 on a 66-month sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon, was found unresponsive on January 5 and “pronounced deceased by EMS personnel,” the Bureau announced.
• December 2025 — Robert James Turner, 57, was found unresponsive on December 19 and, the Bureau says, “subsequently pronounced deceased by EMS personnel”; FOX56 reported that the Wayne County coroner pronounced him dead at 6:18 p.m. and that the initial examination found no signs of trauma.
• July 2025 — a newly arrived man died by suicide within four days of reaching the institution, as described above.
• December 2023 — in United States v. Caraballo the Third Circuit affirmed a five-level sentencing enhancement for serious bodily injury arising from a shank assault in Canaan’s gymnasium on February 6, 2017.
• August 2015 — four correctional officers were stabbed with a sharpened handmade weapon.
• February 2013 — Officer Eric Williams, 34, was stabbed to death by a prisoner. The road the prison stands on now carries his name.
• June 2011 — roughly 300 men and several staff fell ill with salmonella after eating chicken. The government conceded liability in the resulting Federal Tort Claims Act suit; the district court awarded one claimant $350, and the Third Circuit affirmed.

Frequently asked questions about USP Canaan

Problems at USP Canaan: where we can help

The firm helps with the problems that recur at USP Canaan, which are documented, dated and specific, and most of which run on deadlines. These are the ones Canaan’s own inspection record shows coming back:

• Disciplinary process and SHU time. Canaan ran on a single Disciplinary Hearing Officer while men waited in the Special Housing Unit for hearings; a second was authorized in 2026. Timeliness, the record before the hearing officer and the sanction are all contestable through disciplinary proceedings and the administrative remedy program, and the clock on each rung is short. Where the sanction is segregation or loss of commissary rather than good conduct time, the Third Circuit has held that habeas under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 is not the route.
• Protective custody and transfer. Forty-three percent of Canaan’s SHU population was there for protection in June 2025, and the Bureau has told the OIG it is using redesignation to relieve the pressure. Getting a claim verified, and a transfer request on the record, is where the work is. See protective custody and special housing units.
• Medical care that is not happening. Missed outside referrals, sick call requests logged without a date, chronic care intervals missed, appointments lost to modified operations — all documented here by the Inspector General. The route is a written request, then the administrative remedy process, and where negligence caused injury a Federal Tort Claims Act claim. See medical care in federal prison.
• Injuries in restraints. Sixty-six restraint incidents in a year, one causing lasting nerve damage, and documentation gaps the OIG set out in detail. Medical records, the fifteen-minute check logs and the Health Services Restraint Review Forms are the evidence, and should be requested early.
• First Step Act time credits. When a unit is confined to cells two days in three, program participation stops. Whether credits are being earned, calculated and applied has to be asked in writing and followed up; the same goes for halfway house and home confinement placement.
• RDAP and Challenge Program denials, and the § 3621(e) year that turns on them. See our federal prison early release practice.
• Single-cell placement of men at increased suicide risk — the subject of the OIG’s seventh recommendation to this institution.
• Visiting suspensions after a positive ion-scanner result, and rejected mail. Both are appealable, and reinstatement to a visiting list requires the Warden’s decision.
• Designation and security scoring; compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules; and sentence computation errors measured against the Bureau’s sentence computation manual. See our federal prison consulting services.
• Challenges to the conviction or sentence itself, through a direct appeal or a § 2255 motion.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal criminal defense, appeals and post-conviction matters nationwide, and advises families on Bureau of Prisons issues at institutions across the system. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to talk through a specific situation.

Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, the firm’s Managing Director, writes and maintains the federal prison policy material on this site. He is not counsel of record; legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

• USP Canaan, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with addresses, contact details, region and population.
• Institution Supplement CAA-5267.09F, Inmate Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, USP Canaan, 2025. Visiting hours, points, visitor rules and the 2026 visiting calendar; replaced Institution Supplement 5267.09E (2025).
• USP Canaan Inmate Information Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, USP Canaan, 2022. Schedules, counts, telephone hours, mail rules, commissary spending, ion-scanner suspensions, programs and directions.
• USP Canaan Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, USP Canaan, 2022. Category limits, stocked items, prices and shopping rules.
• Institution Supplement CAA-1315.07E, Access to Legal, Inmate, Federal Bureau of Prisons, USP Canaan, 2017. Law libraries, electronic law library and print stations, typewriter supplies and copying.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the $460 monthly spending limit, the holiday increase and deposit rules.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026. Point bands, Public Safety Factors, Management Variables and forms BP-337 and BP-338.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Release Preparation Program, Program Statement 5325.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. The RDAP locations list and the programs-by-institution table.
• Community Ties, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s Send Money instructions, with deposit routes and timing.
• Name Changes Approved for Seven FBOP Facilities, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. The renaming of USP Lewisburg and five other penitentiaries.
• Death at USP Canaan, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The news release on the death of Sakwon Artavas Bowser.
• Death at USP Canaan, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. The news release on the death of Robert James Turner.

Audits and inspections

• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Report 26-055, on the unannounced inspection of June 2–5, 2025, with the Bureau’s response.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: USP Canaan, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. On-site audit of January 23–25, 2024, by Grace A. Franks, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America.
• USP Canaan Inspection Report (2023): Report on Findings and Recommendations, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2023. Inspection of August 16–17, 2022, with the Bureau’s responses.
• USP Canaan Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2016. Inspection of August 4, 2014.

Court records

• United States v. Caraballo, 88 F.4th 239 (3d Cir. 2023), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2023. Affirmed a five-level serious-bodily-injury enhancement for a February 6, 2017, assault at USP Canaan.
• Hall v. Warden Canaan USP, No. 21-1042 (3d Cir. Sept. 10, 2021), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2021. Section 2241 unavailable where the sanctions were segregation and loss of commissary rather than good conduct time.
• Brinson v. United States, 634 F. App’x 352 (3d Cir. 2016), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2016. Federal Tort Claims Act damages of $350 after the June 2011 salmonella outbreak; liability conceded.
• USP Canaan Inmate Charged with Assault Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania, 2026. The charge against Frederico Brown.
• Civil Judgment by Consent Against a Former DOJ Contractor, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. The consent judgment against Jack Kidd and Arapaho Communications LP.

News and other sources

• Inmate dies at USP Canaan; Investigation underway, FOX56 (WOLF), 2025.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Power to grant writ, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026